Minnesota Now and Then: Duluth Thanksgiving feast feeds thousands
Slices of pumpkin pie wait to be served during the annual Thanksgiving buffet in Duluth. The event draws hundreds of volunteers to cook, and serve as many as 5,000 turkey dinners.
Photo Courtesy of Ruth Erdman Sluka 2009
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An army of volunteers is putting the last touches on a Thanksgiving feast for thousands in Duluth. The annual free buffet started 34 years ago as a much smaller event in Superior, Wis.
Now, it draws hundreds of volunteers to cook, and serve as many as 7,000 turkey dinners. In 2009, MPR News’ Bob Kelleher went to the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.
Minnesota Now and Then went back to that story to give an inside look at the preparations that are still taking place today and helping feed thousands.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: An army of volunteers is putting the last touches on a Thanksgiving feast for thousands of people in Duluth. The annual free buffet started 34 years ago as a much smaller event in Superior, while now it draws hundreds of volunteers to cook and serve as many as 7,000 turkey dinners. Back in 2009, MPR's Bob Kelleher went to the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, and we are going to re-air that story to give you an inside look at the preparations that are still taking place today and helping feed thousands.
JACK TESKE: So I guess that's kind of what we're doing. We're waiting for more stuff to come. What can we do?
BOB KELLEHER: Forgive Jack Teske if he looks a little harried. He's been looking for 8 or 10 cases of bread delivered to the wrong address six miles away. Much of that bread goes in the stuffing, but it doesn't really matter since the celery hasn't arrived either. And that's the way it goes when you're preparing Thanksgiving dinner for thousands. Teske has been with the event since the beginning, when he managed the kitchen at a restaurant across the bay in Superior Wisconsin. The owner was inspired to give back to the community that supported his business, but he needed some help.
JACK TESKE: You know, he's finding he was getting a little bit difficult to had enough people to do this. So he put an ad in the paper, and that was the start of, really, the volunteers' end of the aspect of this meal. From that point forward, we've been blessed with many, many volunteers.
BOB KELLEHER: Turnout was decent that year, over 200 meals.
JACK TESKE: In the first couple of years, it was kind of small because people were maybe a little reluctant about coming there, not knowing what to expect. Something free at Thanksgiving time, you know, where is the catch here? And there was no catch. All we wanted to do was to give back to the community.
BOB KELLEHER: For whatever the reason, the Thanksgiving buffet quickly took off. It became a destination for free food, companionship, and entertainment.
JACK TESKE: And by the fifth year, it had grown so large that we decided to come to Duluth and the DECC, where we are right now.
BOB KELLEHER: To date, the numbers are staggering. They're cooking over 1,600 pounds of turkey roast, a ton of potatoes, and 6,000 dinner rolls. More than 800 volunteers are pitching in. Dozens are in the DECC kitchen early this week, already at work on the salads and dressings. Art Fisher is hunched over a kitchen counter, knife in hand. He's retired after a career with General Mills. Today, he's slicing a small mountain of grapes. He's a seasoned volunteer now.
ART FISHER: Well, this is my second year. I just stumbled onto this activity last year.
BOB KELLEHER: Fisher's philosophy is a common one in this kitchen. It's all about giving back.
ART FISHER: I think it's important that those of us that can pitch in these days with the economic conditions that exist and try to help the situation.
SUBJECT 1: Uh-oh.
SUBJECT 2: Oh, that ain't good.
BOB KELLEHER: Across the kitchen there's been an incident at the wild rice cooker, which is roughly the size and shape of a small cement mixer. The rice has suddenly boiled over. But Hobo Pete is on it. He won't provide his real name, but he tells a story of having no home of his own a couple of years ago and finding a warm meal here on a cold Thanksgiving Day. He's got a home now, and last year, he joined the volunteers.
HOBO PETE: You know what I'm saying? The same line that I ate out of, why not prepare for the people that I left behind?
BOB KELLEHER: Pete's clearly a favorite with the kitchen staff. He says he'll be working with them again next year.
HOBO PETE: Gave me a whole lot of strength to make me just come out two years. I hope I can do it for the rest of my life while I'm on this Earth. I wouldn't miss it for nothing in the world.
BOB KELLEHER: The dinner has tons of community support from businesses providing food, paper products, or cash. Volunteers deliver 1,000 meals to people who can't leave home. The local transit authority provides free bus service, with the drivers working for free. And smaller satellite operations provide meals in both Superior and Cloquet. In Two Harbors, the local community is taking over a remote operation there this year. Founder Jack Teske says, even a huge Thanksgiving feast isn't enough to meet the community's need. He figured that out while dining with the guests a couple of years ago.
JACK TESKE: And this man was sitting next to me. He was on the floor, actually. And he was putting food underneath his coat. And I'm thinking, this is really great. Thanksgiving time, we're giving food to these people, but how about tomorrow, when this man has maybe nothing to eat? Maybe that's why he's putting away food.
BOB KELLEHER: That image inspired a second meal, now an annual event organized by the College of St. Scholastica students. It's a lower key free meal in February, in the dead of winter, when hot food might be the only thing keeping a person warm. Rain, snow, or shine, there will, again, be plenty of warm and full bodies in the Duluth area tomorrow, 20 years on and counting. Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio News, Duluth.
CATHY WURZER: Oh, I miss Bob Kelleher. That was Bob back from 2009. This year's feast at the DECC in Duluth will start at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning, 11:00 until 3:00. In Rochester, Lifegate Services-- that's a nonprofit-- is giving away free meals to everybody on Thanksgiving Day. That's a drive-through event in Rochester, first come, first served. Food will be available beginning at noon. In the Twin Cities, Jay Selby's in St. Paul will open its doors at 11 o'clock and offer a free meal to anybody. In the past, that's been about 250 to 400 meals, and they've been doing that since they opened in 2017.
JACK TESKE: So I guess that's kind of what we're doing. We're waiting for more stuff to come. What can we do?
BOB KELLEHER: Forgive Jack Teske if he looks a little harried. He's been looking for 8 or 10 cases of bread delivered to the wrong address six miles away. Much of that bread goes in the stuffing, but it doesn't really matter since the celery hasn't arrived either. And that's the way it goes when you're preparing Thanksgiving dinner for thousands. Teske has been with the event since the beginning, when he managed the kitchen at a restaurant across the bay in Superior Wisconsin. The owner was inspired to give back to the community that supported his business, but he needed some help.
JACK TESKE: You know, he's finding he was getting a little bit difficult to had enough people to do this. So he put an ad in the paper, and that was the start of, really, the volunteers' end of the aspect of this meal. From that point forward, we've been blessed with many, many volunteers.
BOB KELLEHER: Turnout was decent that year, over 200 meals.
JACK TESKE: In the first couple of years, it was kind of small because people were maybe a little reluctant about coming there, not knowing what to expect. Something free at Thanksgiving time, you know, where is the catch here? And there was no catch. All we wanted to do was to give back to the community.
BOB KELLEHER: For whatever the reason, the Thanksgiving buffet quickly took off. It became a destination for free food, companionship, and entertainment.
JACK TESKE: And by the fifth year, it had grown so large that we decided to come to Duluth and the DECC, where we are right now.
BOB KELLEHER: To date, the numbers are staggering. They're cooking over 1,600 pounds of turkey roast, a ton of potatoes, and 6,000 dinner rolls. More than 800 volunteers are pitching in. Dozens are in the DECC kitchen early this week, already at work on the salads and dressings. Art Fisher is hunched over a kitchen counter, knife in hand. He's retired after a career with General Mills. Today, he's slicing a small mountain of grapes. He's a seasoned volunteer now.
ART FISHER: Well, this is my second year. I just stumbled onto this activity last year.
BOB KELLEHER: Fisher's philosophy is a common one in this kitchen. It's all about giving back.
ART FISHER: I think it's important that those of us that can pitch in these days with the economic conditions that exist and try to help the situation.
SUBJECT 1: Uh-oh.
SUBJECT 2: Oh, that ain't good.
BOB KELLEHER: Across the kitchen there's been an incident at the wild rice cooker, which is roughly the size and shape of a small cement mixer. The rice has suddenly boiled over. But Hobo Pete is on it. He won't provide his real name, but he tells a story of having no home of his own a couple of years ago and finding a warm meal here on a cold Thanksgiving Day. He's got a home now, and last year, he joined the volunteers.
HOBO PETE: You know what I'm saying? The same line that I ate out of, why not prepare for the people that I left behind?
BOB KELLEHER: Pete's clearly a favorite with the kitchen staff. He says he'll be working with them again next year.
HOBO PETE: Gave me a whole lot of strength to make me just come out two years. I hope I can do it for the rest of my life while I'm on this Earth. I wouldn't miss it for nothing in the world.
BOB KELLEHER: The dinner has tons of community support from businesses providing food, paper products, or cash. Volunteers deliver 1,000 meals to people who can't leave home. The local transit authority provides free bus service, with the drivers working for free. And smaller satellite operations provide meals in both Superior and Cloquet. In Two Harbors, the local community is taking over a remote operation there this year. Founder Jack Teske says, even a huge Thanksgiving feast isn't enough to meet the community's need. He figured that out while dining with the guests a couple of years ago.
JACK TESKE: And this man was sitting next to me. He was on the floor, actually. And he was putting food underneath his coat. And I'm thinking, this is really great. Thanksgiving time, we're giving food to these people, but how about tomorrow, when this man has maybe nothing to eat? Maybe that's why he's putting away food.
BOB KELLEHER: That image inspired a second meal, now an annual event organized by the College of St. Scholastica students. It's a lower key free meal in February, in the dead of winter, when hot food might be the only thing keeping a person warm. Rain, snow, or shine, there will, again, be plenty of warm and full bodies in the Duluth area tomorrow, 20 years on and counting. Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio News, Duluth.
CATHY WURZER: Oh, I miss Bob Kelleher. That was Bob back from 2009. This year's feast at the DECC in Duluth will start at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning, 11:00 until 3:00. In Rochester, Lifegate Services-- that's a nonprofit-- is giving away free meals to everybody on Thanksgiving Day. That's a drive-through event in Rochester, first come, first served. Food will be available beginning at noon. In the Twin Cities, Jay Selby's in St. Paul will open its doors at 11 o'clock and offer a free meal to anybody. In the past, that's been about 250 to 400 meals, and they've been doing that since they opened in 2017.
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